Tag Archives: conventions

Pfffft, so posting regularly was a habit that went out the window. Baby steps it is.

I have also had some issues with my email lately, so if you’ve sent me something and not heard back – please try emailing me again!

I recently had the good opportunity to illustrate for Oscar Wylee for their opening in my local shopping centre. It was an absolute blast meeting everyone and drawing for them, and I’ve posted some of my favourites to my instagram. It was my first digital live drawing session, and hopefully the first of many. The Oscar Wylee team were very well organised and accommodating, and an all round pleasure to work with.

Next month I’ll be at the Impact Comics Festival in Garema Place, Canberra. It’s been a while since I did a comic book just for me, but I’m steadily chugging out a comic at the moment. More news on that to come soon!

It feels like it’s been a quiet year for me, but here I am again. After thoroughly enjoying Brisbane earlier this year, I’m heading back to finally participate in ZICS, an event I’ve had my eye on since it first started. It’s next weekend, and I’m excited! I’ll be sitting with the Queensland(ish) side of the TTTSNB crew, Wraithdragon and DZYNE studios.

I’ll be bringing reCOLLECTION, my newest comic. Well, not exactly my newest – my newest comics are still works in progress, and not something I can share yet. But reCOLLECTION includes a number of completed pieces that I am very very proud to share.

a preview of the stockbox for ZICS…

ABOUT reCOLLECTION

Three of the comics in reCOLLECTION were written by the brilliant satirist Xeg, a very patient scenarist who has been emailing me his excellence since we met via BD Zine some years ago. I’m particularly grateful to Xeg as Experts are us, one of the scenarios he wrote that is included in reCOLLECTION, was him turning my grumpy frenzied ranting into something coherent, hilarious and lots of fun to illustrate.

Other stories include Talkback and Enso, both gratefully published in ACT Comic Meet anthologies. Finally there’s a brand new never-shared-before comic by me. And an illustration section.

reCOLLECTION is published with the permission of XEG, and with thanks to ACT Comic Meet and CSFG who held first print rights to some of the other pieces in the book.

How to get reCOLLECTION

Everyone who purchases the physical book at ZICS will get a coupon for a free digital download of the book as well!

A convention sketch of Sailor Jupiter, shortly before I erased all the pencil lines and found it a new home.Marker, 2014.

I went to Otakufest on the weekend, and it’s kind of fitting that my last market for the year was my busiest!

I met a lot of cosplayers and very friendly people who made the day more fun. My favourite new-people-to-meet that I met while trading include:

J, who came by and made a beeline for, of all things, Sweet NV issues 1 and 2. He wins favourite new person of the day just for that, but then he went on to tell me that he digs shojo manga and practiced some Japanese with me. (If you’re reading this, I hope you enjoyed the books!)

The excited young lady who made a beeline straight for the sweets deco stock I had out. I promptly showed her all of the extra stock I had (hidden away because there wasn’t enough space on the table!), and offered her the marker sketch I’d been working on that morning because her enthusiasm made my day.

The Eliza and Donny cosplayers from the Wild Thornberrys. I didn’t see the Nigel cosplayer (*sad* 🙁 ), but those two were so fantastically in character I can’t get over it.

The many friendly, talented and cool young women who came by to chat comics, sweets deco and art. You ladies made my day 🙂

I’m also not counting the most excellent friends whom I already knew who stopped by to say hello.

Overall the event seemed to go well. It was fun trading at a pop culture type convention in such a large open space. I did end up getting rained out and leaving early with most of the other comics sellers but the time I had at the show was good. Outdoor markets are great, but can be dangerous for paper-goods sellers if the bureau of meteorology predicts a “high chance of rain”. More signage would have been good (as is my usual complaint with events), but the market was so spread out over Garema Place this wasn’t much of an issue. The good part about being spread out was there weren’t the usual pop culture market tiny walkways for human traffic jams and spontaneous, but poorly placed, cosplay photo shoots – the one photo shoot that led to a human traffic jam near my booth still left enough space for people to walk around.

The show was, for me, very different in ways I’m not used to. It’s also given me plenty to think about for next year and what I want to prioritise. Hm…watch this space!

It’s almost the end of the first quarter of the year and it’s been a pretty busy one for me! If January and February were the plan-comics and make-comics months, March was the month of get-out-there-and-show-comics…and strangely enough, it all did sort of come together in a make-comic order.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of my March 2014 –

Event 1. The Zine Lounge, the Museum

The Museum of Democracy recently converted a room to a Zine Lounge, and wanted to show it off with some artists in residence, as part of the ENLIGHTEN festival in Canberra. I was lucky enough to be one of those artists, and Nic Lawson and I spent a few hours making comics and talking to people about comics and zines. I got most of the ground work for my submission to the new ACT Comic Meet anthology, Exposuredone over the course of the night too 🙂 Double victory!

2. The CZE Vending Machine Launch

I had a zine in the Canberra Zine Emporium Vending Machine, which launched in mid-March. I finally saw Boldly Sweetie off into the world – and I even gave a little speech to see her go. Had to give. That part was a bit of a surprise, but I think I’m getting better at public speaking!

3. Canberra Zine Fair 2014

I realised how much of a busy year it had been when I counted FOUR never-taken-to-market-before new books on my half of the table, including YES | NO and Boldly Sweetie.

My event review is, in brief, up here. I spent most of my day behind a table and didn’t really get up to look around, which is a shame – there were a lot of beautiful and very professional looking books for display this year! It was a good day and free entry is always a massive bonus – particularly when combined with a decent turnout.

I’ll be hanging out in the Museum of Democracy’s brand new Zine Lounge from 6-9 pm on Friday March 8, as part of the Enlighten festival. There’ll be a quite a few other events at the museum, so come say hello if you’re around. I’ll be making comics on the night and probably getting stuck into some storyboards and designs for my major project – so come along if you want a sneak peek 🙂